Phenylacetic acid (PAA) is a protein decomposition product found throughout the phylogenetic spectrum, ranging from bacteria to man. Highly conserved in evolution, PAA may play a fundamental role in growth control and differentiation. In plants, PAA serves as a growth hormone (auxin) promoting cell proliferation and enlargement at low doses (10.sup.-5 -10.sup.-7 M), while inhibiting growth at higher concentrations. The effect on animal and human cells is less well characterized. In humans, PAA is known to conjugate glutamine with subsequent renal excretion of phenylacetylglutamine (PAG). The latter, leading to waste nitrogen excretion, has been the basis for using PAA or preferably its salt sodium phenylacetate (NaPA, also referenced herein as that active anionic meoity, phenylacetate or "PA") in the treatment of hyperammonemia associated with inborn errors of ureagenesis. Clinical experience indicates that acute or long-term treatment with high NaPA doses is well tolerated, essentially free of adverse effects, and effective in removing excess glutamine. Brusilow, S. W., Horwich, A. L. Urea cycle enzymes. Metabolic Basis of Inherited Diseases, Vol. 6:629-633 (1989)!. These characteristics should be of value in treatments of cancer and prevention of cancer, treatments which inhibit virus replication and treatments of severe beta-chain hemoglobinopathies.
Glutamine is the major nitrogen source for nucleic acid and protein synthesis, and a substrate for energy in rapidly dividing normal and tumor cells. Compared with normal tissues, most tumors, due to decreased synthesis of glutamine along with accelerated utilization and catabolism, operate at limiting levels of glutamine availability, and consequently are sensitive to further glutamine depletion. Considering the imbalance in glutamine metabolism in tumor cells and the ability of PAA to remove glutamine, PAA has been proposed as a potential antitumor agent; however, no data has previously been provided to substantiate this proposal. Neish, W. J. P. "Phenylacetic Acid as a Potential Therapeutic Agent for the Treatment of Human Cancer", Experentia, Vol. 27, pp. 860-861 (1971)!.
Despite these efforts to fight cancer, many malignant diseases that are of interest in this application continue to present major challenges to clinical oncology. Prostate cancer, for example, is the second most common cause of cancer deaths in men. Current treatment protocols rely primarily on hormonal manipulations. However, in spite of initial high response rates, patients often develop hormone-refractory tumors, leading to rapid disease progression with poor prognosis. Overall, the results of cytotoxic chemotherapy have been disappointing, indicating a long felt need for new approaches to treatment of advanced prostatic cancer. Other diseases resulting from abnormal cell replication, for example metastatic melanomas, brain tumors of glial origin (e.g., astrocytomas), and lung adenocarcinoma, are also highly aggressive malignancies with poor prognosis. The incidence of melanoma and lung adenocarcinoma has been increasing significantly in recent years. Surgical treatments of brain tumors often fail to remove all tumor tissues, resulting in recurrences. Systemic chemotherapy is hindered by blood barriers. Therefore, there is an urgent need for new approaches to the treatment of human malignancies including advanced prostatic cancer, melanoma, brain tumors.
The development of the methods and pharmaceuticals of the present invention was guided by the hypothesis that metabolic traits that distinguish tumors from normal cells could potentially serve as targets for therapeutic intervention. For instance, tumor cells show unique requirements for specific amino acids such as glutamine. Thus, glutamine may be a desired choice because of its major contribution to energy metabolism and to synthesis of purines, pyrimidines, and proteins. Along this line, promising antineoplastic activities have been demonstrated with glutamine-depleting enzymes such as glutaminase, and various glutamine antimetabolites. Unfortunately, the clinical usefulness of these drugs has been limited by unacceptable toxicities. Consequently, the present invention focuses on PAA, a plasma component known to conjugate glutamine in vivo, and the pharmaceutically acceptable derivatives of PAA.
In addition to its ability to bind gluatamine to form glutamine phenylacetate, phenylacetic acid (PAA) can induce tumor cells to undergo differentiation. (See examples 1-5, 7-9, 11-13, and 16 herein). Differentiation therapy is a known, desirable approach for cancer intervention. The underlying hypothesis is that neoplastic transformation results from defects in cellular differentiation. Inducing tumor cells to differentiate would prevent tumor progression and bring about reversal of malignancy. Several differentiation agents are known, but their clinical applications have been hindered by unacceptable toxicities and/or deleterious side effects.
The utility of PAA and its derivatives is more fully delineated in the above-referenced copending applications. As discussed in these applications, PAA is a nontoxic differentiation enhancer and has antitumor activity in laboratory models and in man. Preclinical studies indicate that phenylacetate and related aromatic fatty acids induce cytostasis and promote maturation of various human malignant cells, including hormone-refractory prostatic carcinoma and glioblastoma. The marked changes in tumor biology are associated with alterations in the expression of genes implicated in tumor growth, invasion, angiogenesis, and immunogenicity. PAA and its analogs appear to share several mechanisms of action, including (a) regulation of gene expression through activation of a nuclear receptor; and (b) inhibition of the mevalonate pathway and protein isoprenylation. Thus, PAA appears particularly suited in the treatment of various neoplastic conditions.
One such neoplastic condition treatable by NaPA is neuroblastoma. As a malignant tumor of childhood, neuroblastoma has proven to be fascinating from a biological as well as clinical veiwpoint. This cancer has the highest rate of spontaneous differentiation of all malignancies and several agents have been reported to induce maturation of neuroblastoma into a variety of cells sharing a neural-crest lineage (Evans, A. E., Chatten, J., D'Angio, G. J., Gerson, J. M., Robinson, J., and Schnaufer, L. A review of 17 IV-S neuroblastoma patients at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Cancer, 45:833-839, 1980; Abemayor, E., and Sidell, N. Human neuroblastoma cell lines as models for the in vitro study of neoplastic an neuronal cell differentiation. Environ. Health Perspect., 80:3-15, 1989). Among the compounds that have been explored as differentiating agents, retinoic acid (RA) (Sidell, N., Altman, A., Haussler, M. R., and Seeger, R. C. Effects of retinoic acid (RA) on the growth and phenotypic expression of several human neuroblastoma cell lines. Expl. Cell Res., 148:21-30, 1983) was shown to be a potent compound for promoting the differentiation of a variety of human neuroblastoma cell lines (Abemayor, E., and Sidell, N. Human neuroblastoma cell lines as models for the in vitro study of neoplastic an neuronal cell differentiation. Environ. Health Perspect., 80:3-15, 1989; Sidell, N., Altman, A., Haussler, M. R., and Seeger, R. C. Effects of retinoic acid (RA) on the growth and phenotypic expression of several human neuroblastoma cell lines. Expl. Cell Res., 148:21-30, 1983; Thiele, C. T., Reynolds, C. P., and Israel, M. A. Decreased expression of N-myc precedes retinoic acid-induced morphological differentiation of human neuroblastoma. Nature, 313:404-406, 1985); however, to date RA has demonstrated only limited clinical effectiveness in this disease (Finklestein, J. Z., Krailo, M. D., Lenarsky, C., Ladisch, S., Blair, G. K., Reynolds, C. P., Sitary, A. L., and Hammond, G. D., 13-cis-retinoic acid (NSC 122758) in the treatment of children with metastatic neuroblastoma unresponsive to conventional chemotherapy: Report from the Children's Cancer Study Group. Med. Ped. Oncol., 20:307-311, 1992). In pursuit of increasing the efficacy of RA-induced differentiation of human neuroblastoma, a number of other compounds and biological response modifiers, such as cAMP-elevating agents and interferons, can potentiate the retinoid activity as well as render resistant populations sensitive to RA treatment (Lando, M., Abemayor, E., Verity, M. A., and Sidell, N. Modulation of intracellular cyclic AMP levels and the differentiation response of human neuroblastoma cells. Cancer Res., 50:722-727, 1990; Wuarin, L., Verity, M. A., and Sidell, N. Effects of gamma-interferon and its interaction with retinoic acid on human neuroblastoma cells. Int. J. Cancer, 48:136-144, 1991). Some of these combination treatments are now being evaluated clinically or proposed for the treatment of neuroblastoma and other malignancies (Smith, M. A., Parkinson, D. R., Cheson, B. D., and Friedman, M. A. Retinoids in cancer therapy. J. Clin. Oncol., 10:839-864, 1992). However, there exists a need for more effective combination treatments for the treatment of neuroblastoma and other similar cancers and pathologies.
Another neoplastic condition which heretofore has been difficult to treat is malignant glioma. Malignant gliomas are highly dependent on the mevalonate (MVA) pathway for the synthesis of sterols and isoprenoids critical to cell replication (Fumagalli, R., Grossi, E., Paoletti, P. and Paolette, R. Studies on lipids in brain tumors. I. Occurrence and significance of sterol precursors of cholesterol in human brain tumors. J. Neurochem. 11:561-565, 1964; Kandutsch, A. A. and Saucier, S. E. Regulation of sterol synthesis in developing brains of normal and gimpy mice. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 135:201-208, 1969; Grossi, E., Paoletti, P. and Paoletti, R. An analysis of brain cholesterol and fatty acid biosynthesis. Arch. Int. Physiol. Biochem. 66:564-572, 1958; Azarnoff, D. L., Curran, G. L. and Williamson, W. P. Incorporation of acetate-1-.sup.14 C into cholesterol by human intracranial tumors in vitro. J. Nat. Cancer Inst. 21:1109-1115, 1958; Rudling, M. J., Angelin, B., Peterson, C. O. and Collins, V. P. Low density lipoprotein receptor activity in human intracranial tumors and its relation to cholesterol requirement. Cancer Res. 50 (suppl):483-487, 1990). Targeting MVA synthesis and/or utilization would be expected to inhibit tumor growth without damaging normal brain tissues, in which the MVA pathway is minimally active. Two enzymes control the rate limiting steps of the MVA pathway of cholesterol synthesis: (a) 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase catalyzes the synthesis of MVA from acetyl-CoA; and, (b) MVA-pyrophosphate (MVA-PP) decarboxylase controls MVA utilization and, consequently, the post-translational processing and function of intracellular signalling proteins (Goldstein, J. L. and Brown, M. S. Regulation of the mevalonate pathway. Nature. 343:425-430, 1990; Marshall, C. J. Protein prenylation: A mediator of protein-protein interactions. Science. 259:1865-1866, 1993). Therefore, it is highly desirable for the treatment of malignant gliomas or other similar cancers and pathologies to find a treatment capable of inhibiting these two steps of the MVA pathway.
A further neoplastic condition which has been difficult to treat is malignant melanoma. Disseminated malignant melanoma is characterized by a high mortality rate and resistance to conventional therapies (Ferdy Lejeune, Jean Bauer, Serge Leyvraz, Danielle Lienard (1993): Disseminated melanoma, preclinical therapeutic studies, clinical trial, and patient treatment. Current Opinion in Oncology 5:390-396). Differentiation therapy may provide an alternative for treatment of cancers that do not or poorly respond to cytotoxic chemotherapy (Kelloff, G. J., Boone, C. W., Malone, E. F., Steele, V. E. (1992): Chemoprevention clinical trials. Mutation Res. 267:291-295). Several differentiation inducers are capable of altering the phenotype of melanoma cells in vitro. These include retinoids, butyrate, dibutyryl adenosine 3':5'-cyclic monophosphate (dbc AMP), 5-Azacytidine, interferons, hexamethylene bisacetamide (HMBA), dimethyl formamide (DMF), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), 12-tetradecanoylphorbol-13 acetate (TPA) (Mary J. Hendrix, Rebecca W. Wood, et al. (1990): Retinoic acid inhibition of human melanoma cell invasion through a reconstituted basement membrane and its relation to decreases in the expression of proteolytic enzymes and motility. Cancer Research 50:4121-4130; Luara Giffre, Magali Schreyer, Jean-pierre Mach, Stefan Carrel (1988): Cyclic AMP induces differentiation in vitro of human melanoma cells. Cancer 61:1132-1141; Jardena Nordenberg, Lina Wasserman, Einat Beery, Doron Aloni, Hagit Malik, Kurt H. Stenzel, Abraham Novogrodsky (1986): Growth inhibition of murine melanoma by butyric acid and dimethylsulfoxide. Experimental Cell Research 162:77-85; Eliezer Huberman, Carol Heckman, Rober Langenbach (1979): Stimulation of differentiation functions in human melanoma cells by tumor-promoting agents and dimethyl sulfoxide. Cancer Research 39:2618-2624; Claus Garbe, Konstantin Krasagakis (1993): Effects of interferons and cytokines on melanoma cells. J. Invest. Dermatol. 100:239S-244S). Unfortunately, clinical applications of these agents are limited by unacceptable toxicities, concern regarding potential carcinogensis, or an inability to achieve and sustain effective plasma concentrations. Therefore, there exists a need for a nontoxic, clinically effective treatments for malignant melanomas or other similar cancers, pathologies or differentiation disorders.
Hydroxyurea, a ribonucleotide reductase inhibitor, is a simple chemical compound (CH.sub.4 N.sub.2 O.sub.2, MW 76.05) that was initially synthesized in the late 1800's (Calabresi P., Chabner B. A. Antineoplastic Agents. In: Gilman A. G., Rall T. W., Nies A. S., Taylor P., eds. The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics. New York: McGraw Hill 1990:1251-2). It was later found to produce leukopenia in laboratory animals and subsequently was tested as an antineoplastic agent (Rosenthal F., Wislicki L., Kollek L. Ueber die beziehungen von schwersten blutgiften zu abbauprodukten des ewweisses. Beitrag zum entstehungsmechanismus der perniziosen. Anamie. Klin. Wschr. 1928;7:972). At present, the primary clinical role of hydroxyurea is in the treatment of myeloproliferative disorders. It is now considered the preferred initial therapy for chronic myelogenous leukemia (Donehower R. C. Hydroxyurea. In: Chabner B. A., Collins J. M., eds Cancer Chemotherapy, Principles and Practice, Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott 1990:225-33).
Hydroxyurea has been evaluated in a number of solid tumors, including: malignant melanoma, squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, renal cell carcinoma, and transitional cell carcinoma of the urothelium (Bloedow C. E. A phase II study of hydroxyurea in adults: miscellaneous tumors. Cancer Chemoother Rep 1964;40-39-41; Ariel I. M. Therapeutic effects of hydroxyurea: experience with 118 patients with inoperable tumors. Cancer 1970;25:714; Nevinny H., Hall T. C. Chemotherapy with hydroxyurea in renal cell carcinoma. J Clin Pharmacol 1968;88:352-9; Beckloff G. L., Lerner H. J., Cole D. R., et al. Hydroxyurea in bladder carcinoma. Invest Urol 1967;6:530-4). Initial studies appeared promising in several of these diseases, but further investigation has not defined a role for hydroxyurea in any of the standard therapy regimens for solid tumors.
Inasmuch as hydroxyurea is an S-phase cell cycle specific agent, it is surprising that several clinical trials of this drug in hormone-refractory metastatic prostate cancer suggested that it possessed some activity (Lerner H. J., Malloy T. R. Hydroxyurea in stage D carcinoma of prostate. Urol 1977;10,35-8; Kvols L. K., Eagan R. T., Myers R. P. Evaluation of melphalan, ICRF-159, and hydroxyurea in metastatic prostate cancer: a preliminary report. Cancer Treat Rep 1977;61:311-2; Loening S. A., Scott W. W., deKernion J, et al. A Comparison of hydroxyurea, methyl-chloroethyl-cyclohexy-nitrosourea and clylophosphamide in patients with advance carcinoma of the prostate. J Urol 1981;125:812-6; Mundy A. R. A pilot study of hydroxyurea in hormone "escaped" metastatic carcinoma of the prostate. Br J Urol 1982;54:20-5; Stephens R. L., Vaughn C., Lane M., et al. Adriamycin and cyclophosphamide versus hydroxyurea in advanced prostatic cancer. Cancer 1984;53:406-10) particularly given (1) the slowly progressive nature of the disease and (2) the schedules of drug administration used in these trials, e.g., once daily to once every three days. It seemed unlikely that either the doses or schedules of hydroxyurea administration used in these trials would capture a significant proportion of tumor cells in a susceptible phase of the cell cycle. Table 30 summarizes the reported clinical data regarding hydroxyurea's activity in hormone-refractory prostate cancer. The overall objective response rate is 23% and the frequency of subjective improvement is 36% (Lerner H. J., Malloy T. R. Hydroxyurea in stage D carcinoma of prostate. Urol 1977;10,35-8; Kvols L. K., Eagan R. T., Myers R. P. Evaluation of melphalan, ICRF-159, and hydroxyurea in metastatic prostate cancer: a preliminary report. Cancer Treat Rep 1977;61:311-2; Loening S. A., Scott W. W., deKernion J, et al. A Comparison of hydroxyurea, methyl-chloroethyl-cyclohexy-nitrosourea and clylophosphamide in patients with advance carcinoma of the prostate. J Urol 1981;125:812-6; Mundy A. R. A pilot study of hydroxyurea in hormone "escaped" metastatic carcinoma of the prostate. Br J Urol 1982;54:20-5; Stephens R. L, Vaughn C., Lane M., et al. Adriamycin and cyclophosphamide versus hydroxyurea in advanced prostatic cancer. Cancer 1984;53:406-10). Thus, there exists a need for an improved therapy using hydroxyurea for treatment of prostatic or similar cancers.
Treatment for most primary central nervous system (CNS) tumors has been, to date, unsatisfactory. Chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and surgery are primarily cytoreductive, aiming to reduce the number of viable tumor cells in the host. While the application of these techniques has been successful in some human malignancies, the use of cytoreductive strategies for medulloblastoma and malignant astrocytoma has had limited success because of inaccessibility of the primary tumor, early dissemination of the malignant cells into the cerebrospinal fluid, lack of effective cytoreductive agents or unacceptable toxicity. Thus, there exists a need for satisfactory treatments for CNS tumors which overcome the prior drawbacks of conventional cytoreductive therapy.
In addition, the link between problems with lipid metabolism and heart disease are now well-accepted. Thus, it is desirable to find treatment capable of modulating or altering lipid metabolism in subjects with related maladies. In particular treatments and methods for reducing serum triglycerides are highly desirable.
While radiation therapy has been widely used in the management of neoplastic disease, it is limited by the lack of radiosensitivity of specific regions of malignant tumors. Chemical enhancement of tumor sensitivity to radiation has largely been unsuccessful and remains a critical problem in radiotherapy. Thus, there exists a need for improved methods involving radiotherapy.
Accordingly, the present invention provides methods and compositions for treating the above-mentioned and other pathologies with PAA and its pharmaceutically acceptable salts, derivatives, and analogs.